PixelJunk Monsters - PS3 Network review

No one wants to see a village full of cute little monsters perish at the hands of a plague of spiders. So killing them is your motivation for replacing all the trees in a forest with cannons, gun towers and anti-aircraft missiles. Admittedly Greenpeace might not approve.

PixelJunk Monsters’ hand-drawn 2D visuals give it a cutesy look, but they hide a deceptively deep real-time strategy game. Just not your typical one, because instead of using a cursor for armament-placing you have direct control of a monster. And instead of paying cold hard cash to upgrade towers, you do a little dance in front of them. Quite.

It’s the tightly balanced levels that make it so addictive and, despite its simplicity, the few choices you have are vital. Do you spend the seconds before a new wave of enemies collecting coins before they disappear, or dancing to upgrade towers? Do you spend funds on upgrades or save them for a new type of tower? The 20 levels, co-op play and these tricky dilemmas will have you hooked.

Feb 7, 2008